chairman of the democratic caucus, discuss the house democratic agenda. and it 9:15, nbc news correspondent terry smith talks about his documentary looking at the marijuana industry in colorado. ♪ host: good morning. up on capitol hill today, federal reserve chairman chan -- janet yellen will be appearing before the senate banking committee to talk about the u.s. economic outlook for the year. we will have coverage on c-span3 at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. in your morning papers this morning, under the threat of a national boycott, jan brewer vetoed the religious freedom bill, saying it could divide arizona in ways we could not imagine.

in texas, a judge struck down marriage, same-sex ruling that the laws violate the constitution. we will begin with your thoughts on infrastructure spending. the president was pushing congress to approve his infrastructure spending plan. what is it like in your city? what are your infrastructure needs? republicans, (202) 585-3881. democrats, (202) 585-3880. independents, (202) 585-3882. you can send us a tweet or post your comments on facebook. had towhat the president say yesterday about infrastructure spending. [video clip] rebuilding our infrastructure is vital to business. becreates jobs that cannot

outsourced. this is one of our major responsibilities, funding -- helping states and cities funded new infrastructure projects. [applause] part of the reason i am focused on this is because congress has a deadline coming up. if congress does not finish a transportation bill by the end of the summer, we could see construction projects stop in their tracks. i was in the budget to congress giving citiesil and states the certainty they need to plan major projects. projects like repairing essential projects and bridges.

[applause] going to have to construct smarter, more resilient transportation systems. bigger surges of water that we have seen in recent -- host: the president talking about the need for more infrastructure spending in this country. we turn to you to find out what it is like in your communities and your cities. what needs fixing? we will get your phone calls, tweets, and e-mails. here is the reaction on twitter. pushk obama will infrastructure investment, we say bring it on. union workers stand ready for the largest project you can think up.

who represents the district of new york, says, our nation, our economy and our workers have been hurt by a severe lack of investment in america's infrastructure. , a republican, saying in a transportation committee meeting, discussing highway bill reauthorization with stakeholders, strong infrastructure helps the u.s. economy. from delaware, i salute the warehouse for proposing a new, smarter investment in our nation's infrastructure. he also said i am honored to replace my friend as chair of the environment and public works transportation and infrastructure subcommittee. he will be heading that up. tweeting outffice the president's new competition will help put americans to work by repairing america's infrastructure. is one by the american

progress group in washington. everyone billion dollars invested in infrastructure equals 10,000 to 15,000 jobs created. california,ale independent. what do you think? they worriedre about the infrastructure when we have all of these buildings throughout the silicon valley and all throughout a bunch of places in america and none of them are filled with any businesses. they are there and they took up all of this money to build. host: you do not think any more infrastructure spending? caller: i do not think so. host: what about roads and bridges? caller: i think most of the bridges out here are good. we just finished the bay bridge out here a couple months back.

it was way out of the ballpark and they should not have spent that much. host: larry, utah, republican. caller: thank you for all that you do for us. the infrastructure in this country is absurd as far as the maintenance. the scheduled maintenance has not been done. they have not maintained it. where the money when i was supposed to go to maintaining is probably something that someone should be held accountable for. the bigger point -- i do not know that it is the federal government's job to do everything for us. it takes the power away from the people to have the federal government do everything. host: you think this should be a state or city issue? caller: i think that is where the power supply.

i don't know what the solution is. it bridge that was built -- was made with chinese steel and chinese labor. i am sick of politicians telling everybody what they want to hear. no one is willing to take a stand on anything anymore. host: gilbert, jamestown, north carolina. what are your infrastructure needs? not in jamestown, north carolina, but i feel like the country should be spending much more money on infrastructure. obamagreat that president spoke in minneapolis. the tremendous bridge

that collapsed over the mississippi and the lives were lost. these things are happening across the country. i would like to add that we are so far behind the europeans in terms of supporting railroad transportation. the people that call in -- the president and -- and bash the president and the administration on why we don't have jobs, within a be nice to bolster the railroad transportation to have some competition with the airline industry, where people could be transported much quicker, very efficiently, and we would be able to reduce the carbon release and pollution that is being expressed in air travel. we are so far behind the europeans. host: we are getting your take

on infrastructure spending. asked congress to push for cutting more money into infrastructure spending across the country. he will propose that is part of his budget that will be revealed next week. -- imagine how different the world would be if he had pushed infrastructure in 2009 instead of the failed obamacare. plan includes closing tax loopholes to help pay for projects. this is what they report in "wall street journal." lands to improve roads, bridges, and tunnels received a laid as president obama

out a proposal for infrastructure upgrades, paid for by unspecified changes to the tax code. the question of how to pay for the work remains sticky. numbers of both parties have pointed to tax code changes as a financing source. the speaker of the house said we have to find funding mechanisms to fund our infrastructure needs. the hunt has been on for the last year to find the funding source. i wish i could report that we had found it, but we haven't. he also said that he and mr. obama discussed the country's infrastructure problems, but did not come to an agreement. mr. camp would raise money through a one-time tax on corporate overseas profits as part of a transition to a new international tax system. here is dave camp talking about

his tax reform proposal. [video clip] >> we must enact real, meaningful tax reform. i am releasing a simpler, fairer tax code. more importantly, what it could mean for america's families. my plan is guided by one simple principle. when it comes to the tax code, -- play should pay by by the same rules. speaker, before mr. camp came before reporters, was hesitant to support mr. camp's tax reform legislation. he did not indicate that would be coming to the floor any time soon. leader forte, the the senate republican party

mitch mcconnell, indicated the same. the hill noted this headline from a year ago. boehner, tax reform to be hr number one. last year this time, the speaker said the tax reform was his priority,gislative not so yesterday. he is quoted as telling block, block, blonde this idea of pushing tax reform this year. blah -- this, idea pushing tax reform this year. and his overall tax reform agenda. we are getting your point -- opinions on infrastructure spending. good morning. connecticut has the second worst roads rated in the u.s. after kansas. --t is happening up there the state is so cheap on the

roads. they are putting road treatment on so they do not have to pay overtime and use sand. it is corroding everyone's brake lines and cars underneath. i had to junk one vehicle because it was too expensive to fix the brake lines. it was $2000. my other vehicle, i had to spend $1100 fixing the brake lines. they have said the treatment is so bad that mechanics say when they go to work on cars in the winter, they have to wear gloves because the salt will take the skin off of people's hands. the problem with the state is they will not get the treatment to offset that. we put a new football stadium at

uconn. extensive --n expensive failure. some professors are getting pensions of $200,000. is, the roads are getting so bad from this that my , in the summer, the grass grows in the middle of the road. host: new york, richard, republican caller. there are so many indians appear in western new york. money,e trying to get they're putting local city governments and county governments from the indians

into their casinos and lotteries . in winnings and stuff like that. that is the problem. they came up with all of these casinos to improve everybody's economy, but it backfires. daniel, in d.c. caller: i agree with the previous caller about the rail system. if that would greatly improve, that would take pressure off the other transportation dependencies. ., there are around 7000 potholes in the locality. the northeast corridor takes a beating. the roads are pretty amazing, but we are reaching a breaking point in terms of our capacity, number of cars, number of people that are working and dependent on cars. system a new, modernized

of transportation. parking is an issue. enough people that live in some of these spaces is nearly impossible to accommodate. affordable housing and leading into the 21st century, that is an underscore open topic that --.rves plus is what america gets in this latest. 2020stimated investment by is 3.6 trillion dollars. the washington post on president obama's speech reported this. bill is sethighway

to expire and the reliant trust fund is expected to run short of money in the heart of summer highway repair and construction season. money states used to pay for those projects will triple to a halt. the president plans to fill the fund wouldtrust represent a major policy shift. one-time, $150 billion boost from corporate tax reform. the decision to present opposed -- proposal was a calculated gamble by the administration, which weighed whether any plan from the white house would fall prey to partisan warfare on capitol hill. they also say obama's plan would end a 60 year reliance on using the gas tax to pay for transportation. the nonpartisan congressional budget office and the washington six-year that a

transportation bill funded at current levels would require $100 billion in the trust fund. bill is considered ideal because most projects demand a stable funding source. bruce, baltimore, independent caller. there needs to be money spent on infrastructure, but it is a political move by obama. we have had so many problems with budgets, the deficits are going on and they are ridiculous. cut the military budgets, they do not have the money for different things. i live in baltimore city. years lived here over 33

and our mayor is such a manipulator. this is how bad it is. mayoryears ago, our manipulator that she is, she is good at selling stuff. million dollars in federal funds for infrastructure and used them to pave the roads in the downtown district, which were not in bad shape, so they could meet the requirements to have a race on labor day. what it really was, the organizers of open wheel racing -- it failed for three years. the second year she told these whopping lies about the revenue. host: julian, greensboro, north carolina.

caller: it is your responsible to invest in infrastructure as the government. if you look back in the industrial revolution, the technological advances in transportation would have been impossible without the investment of private investors. the government has not been one to advance the technology. it is up to private investors to put that money out. if you look at your report card, 3.6 trillion is needed in order to help american infrastructure. his amounts would cut the initial amounts of energy programs. he is having a lot of his prime programs in order to focus on infrastructure. the private sector should be focusing on this.

this is what "the washington times" says. anotherident announced 600 million dollars in competitive grant funding through the federal transportation department to pay for construction and repair projects in states. of thehe latest round transportation investment generating economic recovery program, which began as part of obama's 2009 stimulus package. should be rallying together the different transportation organizations that have the budget and the know-how to make something possible. throwing money at something that is not -- that does not have a full flange is -- is the problem of the administration. caller: i appreciate you discussing this topic.

day to goke all through the list that are going on in my home town report that need to be done. host: why is that? illinois, they are broke and our community is broke. it would take a program like the one barack obama is mentioning to come up with the funds. the only thing is it falls way to sure for what is needed. if it is anything like our community, in the 1930's, they did a study about improving the highways in and out of this community. 70 years later, they are still studying it. major roads through town, still a two lane, not mckenna for two cars, let alone today's traffic. -- not a big enough for two cars, let alone today's traffic.

our city hall has a fence around it. the city hall closed for years ago and they moved to a rented facility. two bridges have been closed in freeport. a dog kennelout to that you have to go four miles out of the way to get to because the bridge is closed. another one -- host: is your city not able to pay for these improvements? caller: absolutely not. it would have to come from washington in order to fund everything that is needed. the list is -- we have buildings that are collapsing from the

weight of the snow this year. we have situations with that aren water mains leaking because of the severe cold it goes on and on. to gety way it is going funded, washington want to put the money on the table. remind viewers what is happening with the illinois state government and your budget situation. they have lost enough jobs and the money is being diverted, who knows where. have you had issues with your pension fund as well? is totallyt unfunded. i don't know where the money went, but yes. is only thing they can do figure out how they're going to be able to cut the pensions and that will not go over well.

we will keep taking your phone calls and thoughts on infrastructure needs. president obama pushes congress to approve more spending funding as part of his budget that will be unveiled next week. in other news, the arizona governor vetoed the religious freedom bill. this is the headline in "the washington times." brewer veto backs gay rights over arizona business religious rights. [video clip] >> senate bill 1062 does not address a present or concern related to religious -- in arizona. i have not heard one example where the religious rights have been violated. the bill is broadly worded. after raising the argument --

after reviewing all the arguments, i have vetoed the bill. to the supporters of this legislation, i want you to know that i understand long-held norms about marriage and family are being challenged as never before. going manyy is under changes. 1062ieve that senate bill has the potential to create more problems than it purports to solve. divide arizona in ways that you cannot imagine and no one would ever want. religious liberty is a core american and arizona value. so is nondiscrimination. going forward, let's turn the ugliness of the debate over senate bill 1052 into a renewed search for greater respect and understanding among all arizona

ns and americans. south carolina already has a version of the controversial arizona gay law on its books. carolina's law, which few realize was on the books, protects individuals or business' faith practices from government interference. texas gay marriage ban struck down. a federal judge says the law domain dashti means same-sex couples. he delays order until appeals to be heard. the situation in ukraine. u.s. to russia, do not muscle in on ukraine. the u.s. urged russia to avoid

provocative actions after flat putina -- after vladimir ordered troops to conduct combat readiness drills near ukraine where pro-russian protesters are fighting rivals in the south. on the situation in syria, syria ships mustard gas to one of its ports to be destroyed under this deal that was brokered by the obama administration. blames the syrian government for the deadlock in talks that have been ongoing to try to reach some sort of peace deal. returning to the united states on the domestic side, today is the fifth anniversary of the tea party movement. the tea party celebrates its fifth anniversary today, essentially marking some 1

the grassroots movement spontaneously emerged to become a political and cultural force to be reckoned with. michele bachmann will be one of the people speaking at today's event. cruz, as well as king, and, steve others that will be attending. celebration, and underscoring of all things tea party, will be staged at a grand hotel two blocks from the u.s. capitol. we are talking about infrastructure needs in your community. caller: good morning. to problem that i am trying get to and understand is that

the infrastructure here in this country in every state of the union is falling apart. there are bridges in oklahoma that are so bad that people have to go 20 miles out of the way to get to work. i am talking about out of the way. here's the point for me. war,n find money to go to to go kill people in their country, we can find money everywhere. we have been in afghanistan longer than any war we have ever had. what have we gotten for? the infrastructure here in tulsa, oklahoma is karen this. -- is karen this. -- is horrendous. we could cut the unemployment rate by putting people to work

railcting the bridges, the transportation, but what are we doing? we have nothing to show for what we have done. park,maurice, oak illinois. caller: good morning. they aren is that going to get funding. it has to be done. if congresseciate or the president and the congress in the senate would push that when they do this together that it does include a black americans on this construction project. it is always european americans are mexican-americans laying concrete, doing all the work.

instead of, at this time, america has a history of forcing americans to work, this time they can hire them. last week on newsmakers, we talked to the interim .resident of the naacp she talked about president obama and his focus on african-american issues and also, there is a headline, obama outlines creation of a rare, black focused program. he is creating my brother's keeper. they will bring together agencies to help young men of color to stay on track and reach their full potential. you can go to c-span.org and go

library.deo rea they are not focusing on the solution. black men can do that they are qualified to do, you -- tooeed much of a much schooling to put cement down. a solution to the problem. haven't been -- the last 25

to 30 years. you see the problem that is taking place. it has not been effective. ain't what you read. that is not solid. we are talking about jobs that are coming. you can't mention how many blacks will be put to work on this project of rebuilding ameri ca? the: that is what administration is calling it one a tweet out with the #rebuil damerica. a draft will cut 220 sections of the u.s. tax code and collapses seven tax brackets into two. it also says that the joint

committee on taxation estimates the plan would create up to 1.8 million new jobs, boost growth domestic product and increase the income of an average family. among other provisions, he said it was sure the depleted highway 126 .5 billion of dedicated funds. tax long-term capital gains and dividends as ordinary income. democrats have often decried that particular exemption as a giveaway to the rich. in the editorial pages this dave camp's plan would yield $700 billion in extra dynamic resident -- revenue. weaknesses in the plans are due to trying to offer something that might attract a democratic president and senate.

republicans are skeptical, believing they can coast to gains in november by attacking obamacare. on mr.nt to avoid voting camp's plan in the house. they need a positive agenda, especially for lifting growth and incomes. the gop has made clear it is for cutting deficits and now it needs to restore his reputation as the growth party. mr. camp's proposal should start the debate. the republicans are too focused on health care. nearly every dollar being spent against democratic conditional -- congressional candidates is going towards pounding them on a new health-care law.

the washington post weighs in on the tax reform proposal by dave camp. tax plan is a serious approach to a serious problem. of course, it has no chance. they support what mr. kamp has put out generally. they have some criticism of its provision. let's go to bob, lawndale, california. i support the plan to , as on the infrastructure long as that is the interstate highways. president eisenhower realized it was difficult getting military equipment across the united commerced getting across united states. he had the u.s. government were to build an interstate transportation system.

those and some of the local things in the city, if we get our infrastructure down -- no one wants to have an oil car going down your railroad it is track from the 1950's or 1960's. upgraded.d to be bridges are falling down. i live in the l.a. area. we have rail and a bridge problems that will good to take care of. host: dale, westlund, michigan. in michigan, it is so are having flat --es, blown lambs, they are

they have facebook sites where we are urging our governor to spend more money on our local roads and infrastructure because every time you go out, there is a new hole in the road. roads have been an issue in michigan four many years. trailering and other things that states don't allow. , in our state, i guess they have passed a $100 million initiative out of our billion dollar surplus to fix some of the baubles. i don't know -- to fix the potholes. i don't know if that is local money anymore. you cannot miss these things. i have to take a route to get to the store that is about three miles longer than it should be

because the road that i go out to at the end of my street has a bunch of holes on it. host: do you think it should be the federal government that steps in and gives the money to the states to fix roads and bridges? caller: absolutely. the federal government is stepping in to fix the one local county road that my street dumps out onto. i don't know if it is enough at this point. part of the problem is the weather has caused major problems. cycle andhere is a any of these northern states, we are going to have some really severe problems. host: donna says this -- i drive all over this country. it is start -- it is about time we start hearing for it. the front page of the financial

times has this headline. senators it at credit suisse hiding tactics. it was brought out the detailed ways that credit bankers helped u.s. clients evade taxes, including meeting in secret elevators, creating offshore shell companies and making trips to the united states under false returns as. you can watch that on c-span.org. in the reliable source section of the washington post this morning, then versus seth. seth rogen made his capitol hill debut, appearing before the senate appropriation committee to talk about alzheimer's disease. then affleck was talking about the democratic republic of congo

at a senate foreign relations committee. we covered the alzheimer's hearing. you can watch that on our website as well. today, this is the washington post this morning. michelle obama will be talking about obesity in this country. she will be outlining nutritional labels from the fda. a look at the proposed nutritional labels. they are unveiling proposed changes to nutrition labels for foods that include more prominent tower accounts and serving sizes. look for more on that from the first lady. has a story times about chris christie saying he is not worried about politics now. he was quoted yesterday in new jersey saying my name is not going to be in the ballot again in this state. it said that he would be in a statewide series of town hall

style meetings intended to build pressure on lawmakers to take action on public worker benefits, which consume 90% of all new spending in the governor's proposed budget for fiscal year 2015. hillary clinton saying that in florida on wednesday night, the path for the nation' will lies in the broadening of participation of women, the poor, young people, and other disadvantaged people in the public debate. brian, columbus, ohio. republican caller. caller: thank for taking my call. i had a comment about the infrastructure. while i was on hold, you are talking about --. there is a show that was on a while ago.

it talked about the crumbling of america. it is basically an advertisement for which you are talking about. it is a national security thing. it is needed. i was going to make a comment about how -- we are already 17 trillion in debt. it seems it will raise the rate again if they keep doing that. at some point, it is going to burst. they seem to know something we do not about why they don't care what our debt is right now. we need to get it done. saying,s the arizona religious freedom issues in this country, it amazes me how we go out of our way for muslims, but we don't care about offending christians. a muslim cab driver, they will not get in the -- allow you to

get in the cab without call. wrecked, i haden to cash this check and i had to take a cab ride. to consumeou allowed alcohol in public? caller: no, but it was carrying it from the store to his cab. it had not been opened. he said you cannot get my cap with that. america and you need to live by our laws. i looked at the meter. it was over $100. i said i am not paying that if you do not take me the rest of the way home. you can call the cops, whatever you want. he said next time, you have to call someone and you want a non-muslim cab driver. host: you think it should go both ways? caller: yes. it amazes me -- the gays at this fight because they want -- they cannot have it both ways.

host: i will leave your comments there. i want to show you a couple of quick headlines. the new york times, no conflict of interest found in the pipeline review. a state department contractor who prepared an environmental analysis of the keystone xl type line did not violate conflict of interest rules even though he had done work for transcanada. from arizonaessman and cochairman of the progression caucus, obama's pipeline -- asking the president to reject approval of it. coming up next, we're going to at one of and a look

the gop proposed alternatives to itsaffordable care act with sponsor, congressman phil roe. later, we will talk with how the becerra.vier ♪ >> what we are told as students and a nation in terms of the popular imagination is that there are all kinds of citizens and marches and demonstrations that occur. they are done by these famous, iconic people. rosa parks, she was so tired

that she refused to get up from the bus in montgomery, alabama. preacher, who even the president referred to as a young preacher from georgia, dr. martin luther king jr., who leads in masses of african americans from racial oppression with the notion that rosa sat and martin could do this stuff and it jesse could run and all of these things. they sound good, but they simplify a complicated history. that involves so many african-americans, women and men, who proactively dismantled racial segregation, including rosa parks. she was an activist. she did not just refuse to give up her seat by accident. it was a concerted, strategic effort to try to transform democratic institutions. peniel joseph specializes in

the subfield of africa, and what he calls black power studies. sunday, he will take your questions. it starts at noon, eastern. >> blown out, broke. year in, year out, uncomplaining. they fought the worst drought in history. choked to death, homes were nightmares of day.ing death knight and -- swirling dust night and day. machinery, until

homes, food, and even hope were gone. weekend, the 1936 u.s. resettlement administration documentary, "the plow that broke the plains." >> washington journal continues. host: we're back with congressman phil roe. he was a practicing doctor. let me show you the headline. gop leaders to huddle on obamacare alternatives. that will happen later this week. on there three proposals table, including yours. what would your legislation do? guest: what we did a year ago and during the election campaign

was we said, we're going to do for two mitt romney -- to mitt romney. i am a 31 year practicing physician. the chairman of the republican study commission came to me and said would you chair a group. we had a truer effect -- a terrific group of people. we put together conservative ideas of if we repeal the affordable care act, what do you replace it with. you can't beat something with nothing. we sat down and put these principles down. the principles we brought up were things -- he asked me to put a bill together that has no mandates, no tax increases, covers pre-existing conditions, and extends coverage and lower costs.

we put this together. it is a very simple bill. out medicaid reform and medicare reform. that is very important because the bill becomes much more weighty when you put those two things in. there, forills out ryan's. paul we give you a standard deduction for health insurance coverage. retired from our practice and ran for congress, when i worked my practice, my health insurance was deductible. it was an expense of the business. today i retired, i could not deduct that any longer. i had to pay first dollar. an individual like me, insurance became much more expensive. let's say you are working and

you do not have health insurance and you make $60,000 a year. we allow you a $20,000 standard deduction. your taxable income would only be $40,000. it is a huge advantage for you. if you find a policy that costs $15,000, that difference, you get to take it as a deduction. you will get money back on your tax return. our health savings accounts and expand those to a lot of different needs. we have malpractice reform. there is a huge amount of unnecessary testing. another thing we did was made a transparency. we require medicare to tell us what they pay for things. andst every single fee

insurance company charges is based off some percentage of what medicare does. we also allow you to cross state lines. host: is that just for medicare enrollees? guest: no. it is to make sure that cms makes the data available for anyone. we do not know what they pay a hospital for a gallbladder. it would require them to post that online so you and i would know what they are paying. we would know what our insurance company should be paying. -- it allows you to buy across state lines. it has never made sense to me that you can buy every other insurance product across the world, but you cannot buy health insurance across state lines. it would allow you to have groups form that could perform larger risk pools to make

insurance more affordable and allow the cost to go down because of the grouping and getting bigger. back to thego standard deduction. that sounds like a loss of revenue. how much would that cost? to make thisted revenue neutral. that was one of the requirements i had. no mandates, no taxes. aout 80% of people will get reduction in their health insurance. about 20% will go up. it is a revenue neutral bill. if they have a planet is more than $20,000, they will not pay taxes on that. it is still fully deductible for business. what about the business iran? we had 450 employees were i was.

it is still fully deductible for your business. host: where do you raise money? --host: how does the drive down the cost of health care in the country. i have a debit card in my pocket and people tell you that folks won't shop. shoppers are the best in the world. we will drive across five lanes of interstate to get -- two cents cheaper. two cents cheaper.

when you go in, if you are paying your money and you have a debit card with your money on it, you will negotiate the best price. havethat right now and i done it many times. if you pay cash, your costs will go down. that has been proven over and over again. about the something affordable care act. donef the things that is is that it has raised the out-of-pocket and the deductibles tremendously. , 40% of thels uncollectible debt in our is on our people with insurance. the out-of-pocket and deductibles are so high, they cannot pay it. i have my insurance through the d.c. exchange.

are able to fund your health savings account, you have a catastrophic policy, which is what health insurance should be. you have the money to pay for. it is in your account. our bill allows you to fund up what you're out-of-pocket would be. in this plan, you can have it as an individual, large group, small group, whatever you want to do. host: what about the low and middle income folks that cannot put it in a health savings account. we explain pre-existing conditions. 160 million of us get our insurance through our business. the small group and individual market, the people who did not have insurance, they were another part. you have medicaid and medicare. those are the parts. government paid insurance, private insurance, uninsured and

small business. any bill, itt in is a straightforward bill. the lower income individuals, this bill can be amended, open for discussion. that is how we want to bring it to the floor. if you want to use tax credits, that is fine. the medicaid reform -- our bill did not do that. we stayed away from medicaid or medicare. host: what you expect on the timing of this? the principles they brought up at the retreat in maryland, we need every single and wase that we want listed. our bill ought to be the basis for discussion. there will be a discussion that you bring another of small -- a

number of small individual bills across state lines or do you bring a comprehensive bill? i hope they bring a comprehensive bill. host: you expect this to be before the november elections? guest: i don't know about that. i would like this to go through regular order and what that means in english is that it goes through the committees of jurisdiction, the committees that did that -- ways and means, energy and commerce -- take it through those subcommittees and full committees and bring it to the house floor and debate it. i want this bill, the american health care reform act, to be amended. i want democrats to discuss this bill. i want everybody to have a part. host: how much would it cost to dismantle so-called obamacare and replace it with what you are proposing here? it is the law, it is on the books, there is infrastructure in place for this. guest: i think you made a great

point -- infrastructure could we have spent -- one of the frustrations i have with the affordable care act is that we have literally spent billions and billions and billions of dollars and they did not do one thing for me to take my pen and write a prescription for anybody. it is not done anything to provide for patients. it is providing for bureaucracy and websites that don't work and on and on. it is not gotten down to the patients. the number i saw from cms the other day -- and i have not read the whole report, so i have to say i have not done that -- but one, prices have gone up. the problem with the american health-care system before were 2 things -- actually, 3 things -- we had a group of people who are not covered in this country. i see them in rural tennessee. access is a problem. and cost are going up too much. i can see in the

affordable care act, medicaid expansion is the largest expansion through the affordable care act and it is not lowered costs. i was a problem to begin with. it -- that was a problem to begin with. it just costs too much. host: shreveport, louisiana, republican caller. caller: hi, greta. love you. anyway, sir, let me ask you, if i have a life insurance policy, i have no job, no income, can the irs take that out of my insurance policy for the penalty? guest: oh, gosh, that's a great question. i don't know the answer to that. you have actually stumped me this morning. in other words, her question is that if she doesn't buy the affordable care act and she has saved her money through a life insurance policy, can the iris the money she has built up in her life insurance policy? i don't know the answer to that could let me get your phone

number and i will get that for you. that is a great question. host: lisa, just hang on the line and we will get our producer to come back on and chat with you and get your phone number and the congressman wants to follow. guest: we will get that information to you, lisa. host: anything you want to say now to the congressman? caller: i am so tired of trying to figure it out because of louisiana, and bobby jindal is our governor and i can't get any information on this. i am trying to figure out what to do. guest: lisa, we will get you that information could give us your phone number and we will get back you. host: i want to show our viewers a headline from the low sent -- from "los angeles times." "obamacare enrollment hits 4 million." "unfortunately for house republicans, their fixation on repealing the aca comes at their own peril in 2014. as the landscape over the

affordable care act has shifted in the democrats' favor, democrats are now on offense over this." guest: this is not about democrats and republicans are this is about patients and people. this is about people i know at home in the local hospital system. we have lost thousands of jobs in a town of 60,000 people. there, a medical school a pharmacy school, and the va hospital, and the v.a. has not lost any jobs but the hospitals are struggling around this country. i have a newsflash for people, it is about patients and people, not about democrats and republicans. i've never understood since the day i got here -- i've never seen a republican or democrat heart attack in my life. they are just people. we should be thinking about what is best for people. you can talk about 4 million. i don't know what the actual numbers are.

i don't think anybody does. it will be a year or two, and he keeps changing when the mandate take place, a couple years before you know the full effects of the bill. host: jodi on twitter guest: that's a great idea. i think transparency -- j ody is absolutely right, it should happen. paying for a doctors's visit -- who in the world would go to a mall and not know what you are going to pay? it is crazy what you do. he is absolutely right, the transparency should be there. host: how does your provision with medicare cost prices factor into that? guest: what it does is that allows -- jody would know exactly what medicare pays if his wife missing, or if jody is a female, would come to see me. they wouldn't know what i get

paid and what i accept -- they wouldn't know what i get paid and what i except for a visit. the: does that allow patient to pick up -- guest: no, no, let's say you oe, i he say me -- "dr. r have my yearly visit and you -- letat i charge an" me tell you what we have lost in this country and it is very worrisome to me. i know it doesn't sound like a lot to bureaucrats, but the physician-patient relationship is extremely important. that relationship we develop over time and the trust we develop about how we care for the most personal things in her life, which is her health care, things in your life, which is your health care, we are losing. that is what i like about the health savings account. i use myself as an example again.

s ated to have some biopsie an outpatient center and my doctor said i needed to have this. my doctor was a person i had gone to medical school with. i didn't call the insurance company. i took my debit card to the outpatient clinic and i said i want the best price you have and they give me the lowest rice i had because i paid cash with my debit card and the health savings account and i got it done. my doctor said i needed and i knew as a patient i needed that. host: let's go to the amount of people insured in this country. obamacare, the number is a 4 million, according to the latest report. under your proposal, how many more people would be insured? guest: we don't know for sure. we think -- this is without medicaid -- about 2 million to 3 million more. it could be more than that because you don't know how this will affect the markets -- in other words, and something is more affordable, more people tend to buy it. here is another thing about the numbers i want to bring out that we saw this in tennessee.

you don't know how many of those people had insurance and lost their insurance and are simply buying it again. tennessee 20 in years ago and found that almost half the people who signed up had private insurance and drop it. they may be people like myself who had it and just in the insurance policy it wasn't grandfathered in and they had to buy new affordable care act insurance. host: chase in grand rapids, michigan, democratic caller. caller: hello, thanks for allowing me to call this morning good you republican plan does not go far enough. at theere to look standard measure of cultural used by demographers around the world, the human development index, you see that the western european nations with highly developed once tier

health care systems perform much higher on the government of culture. compared to most eastern european countries in development, with much higher rates of infant mortality them much shorter life expectancy, generating a higher rate of not being well cared how do you believe that your program will fix these programs? guest: chase, a couple things. churchill winston said, you have to be careful when you look at statistics -- there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, i think it's what he said. when you look at infant mortality, you have to look at, in our country, a very diverse population. i think we can do better and we can provide health coverage for everybody in this country. republicans and democrats believe that. it is this a question of how you do it. one of the things i did not bring up is that we increased production for care. if you want to use dietary

supplements, if you want to do programs,e exercise we put that in there. i believe that. i've done that myself. absolutely believe that. give audible care act, the problem i have with it -- the affordable care act, the problem i have with it is that it requires an essential health benefit. in other words, the government decides what you buy, or not, chase, would you buy and what you need for your family. i think you ought to be able to make a decision that the federal government should not be making it for you. host: cunningham, tennessee, independent caller. caller: hello -- i'm on? host: you are, norman, go ahead. caller: this affordable care act train is already left the station and you are two or three years behind on the situation. you could've done something when the bush and administration was

in there and you sat back and did not do anything. is, why does the united states have to pay so much more for health insurance than any other free country in the world, and we ain't getting the insurance we deserve for our money? thank you. guest: norman, good to hear from a fellow tennessean. you make a couple good points. first of all, i wasn't here during the bush ministration. care, to work on health and by the way, president bush did bring up a very comprehensive plan, but the democrats ruled that plan dead on arrival. i read the plan. it is actually pretty good. president bush did extend medicare part d for our seniors. so he did try to me just couldn't do it with the current congress that she did try. he just couldn't do it with the current congress. -- he did tried to do he just couldn't do it with the current congress. one of my frustrations as a doctor -- i did it my entire life except for my time in the military.

not one of us of doctors was asked one thing about the health care bill. this is done is to put on a partisan basis -- this was done strictly on a partisan basis. health care affects every one of us. i agree with you, norman, the trend is left the station, but the bill i have written my dear, i want democrats and republicans to contribute to this because one of the reasons you are seeing so many people in america pushback on this is because an entire segment of the population was left out of the discussion. it was done by one party. democrats alone did this bill. host: if the train has only left the station, what but for this legislation? guest: i think you have a bill whatever hole you want to read, -- whatever poll you want to read, the people don't like this. when people learn what is in this bill and they will like it and approval will go up -- it has done just the opposite. people are learning -- as

then-speaker pelosi said, we have to read it and then see what is in it. i am one of the few people in the town who read the entire bill and i saw the things in the problems and i wrote about it 4 years ago. host: how was your proposal different from what we saw in the senate with senators hatch and burr? guest: it is actually very similar. the main principles of adding people to -- getting people to buy across state lines and medical malpractice reform, those are in the bill, also. i want to go through regular order and be amenable -- amendable to look a democrat and republican amendment to make this bill better. host: new hampshire, republican caller. caller: thanks for taking my call. host: morning. caller: i want to say, my wife and i, we had come before the

aca went into effect, our own $8,000 tom $4000, dockable could we were paying $5,500 a year for that. ever since this has been through, the aca, our premiums are over $8,000. under the aca, the cheapest policy is $10,000 a year, with a to dockable. if you want the same policy committee is $13,000-plus a year. we do not qualify for any subsidies. the $62,000 limit. looking at the state of new hampshire's website on this, if you are one dollar at that limit , you get a $5,500 subsidy from the government. if you make a dollar more, you get zero. it makes no sense. host: can i ask you, what are your insurance options in a new hampshire? caller: we only have one

company, anthem blue cross blue shield. host: and do you think that is the problem? caller: no, no, it is all the mandates. every year -- my wife and i before this, we have had our own policy for years now. the state of new hampshire had mandates and it would go up. now the aca has a lot of mandates and it keeps going up to what we need, my wife and i, is a catastrophic policy. the only thing we use health care for is the annual physicals, which used to cost $500 a year between the 2 of us. now we get free physicals, even though it has gone up $2000 a year. only a politician would think that an action $2000 -- for nx or $2000 you are getting something free and across something less. i wanted to make a point about something the congressman said. when you go to the doctor -- a challenge everybody was listening today, next time you

go to the doctor, ask them how much this procedure, this appointment, this physical is going to cost. nobody can tell you. the doctor obviously doesn't know, the office manager doesn't know. you can find out what something find outyou can't what's of the class, and with these the dockables -- these deductibles, they want you to be a better shopper. how could you be a better shopper if you don't know what things cost when you enter the building? guest: i could not say it better than you did could the system right now is the most uncertain i've seen in my lifetime. the store you have told i heard over and over and over again. 50-75% this went up year, exactly like yours has gone. and the thing with the hospitals now, because of the sequester, they have had decrease payments in medicare and in addition to that, with of those billy had to dockable's, you may be able to afford -- with those very high

deductibles, or may be able to afford it -- you and your wife are obviously very savvy shoppers and take care of yourself, which i applaud you for, but many people cannot pay those out-of-pockets. 40% of the people in the hospital are people with insurance. something is desperately wrong, and when someone like yourself is basically being taxed -- that is exactly what this is good when you have a higher out-of-pocket and more costs, you have that so that few people can do a little less. host: on twitter guest: you have got -- first question, respect for human life is you can't use your hsa or any federal dollars to pay for abortion. ydet is the so-called h amendment, the conscience clause. it is being debated now. that is what that is. thank you for taking the time. they'll. -- ted -- thank you for taking

the time to read the bill. we did not expand coverage again, andxcept -- , we did notedicaid put reform in this bill. i would look at a series of tax credits for low income people to have affordable health insurance . it is certainly amendable. host: panama city, independent code bank. -- independent caller. own -- with family and friends. the only difference i would make to it is when you are dealing with people that have a pre-existing condition. have them purchase regular insurance as if they didn't have pre-existing to cover everything else could i had to put it into a specific pool just for the pre-existing or turn it over to medicaid.

guest: good point, and again, hard to go through a 180 page bill in 10 minutes, but we do have fully funded, state-run high-risk pools. you make a great point. i have patients all the time and i saw it so much, because i am an ob/gyn doctor, were with female patients with breast cancer who left the workforce to get there cancer treated successfully. we do a much better job of that now. if they reenter the workforce, they have a pre-existing condition. that is not right. i absolutely agree with that. for those patients, we have fully funded, state-run high-risk pools so that people can have affordable insurance with existing conditions. me tell you the other thing, chris, that solves the pre-existing condition problem. when you have larger and larger our sf-based plan, it covers 160 million of us to

get our insurance through the work. you cannot discriminate based on pre-existing condition if you have that plan, which i have in my office for 30 years. host: harold in alabama, democratic caller. go ahead, you are on the air with the congressman. caller: i would like to ask him, thatcoverage does it offer obamacare does not offer? guest: good question. the coverage is basically the same. what we have done with this is to allow you as an individual -- in other words, right now, if you buy an insurance policy -- the caller from new hatcher made a great point a minute ago -- when you have the 10 essential health benefits -- i will give you an example. i'm over having children. i have 3 grown, adult children.

my wife and i are very happy with that. we don't need pregnancy coverage right now, we don't need dental coverage, we don't need all of those types of things. i don't need a policy that has that. but i'm forced to because that is one of the 10 essential health benefits required by law. it allows you to decide what is best for your family. that would be one major difference. --: the roi in oklahoma leroy in oklahoma. caller: good morning, mr. roe. guest: good morning. caller: we know that reforming health care in this country is going to be difficult, isecially as polarized as it . it seems like in the beginning, you want to repeal and replace, and it seems like you in about three years and he got rid of the replace and just always wanted to repeal. thenow that reforming

health care law in this country is going to be really difficult, no matter what. it seems like now it has gone so long that you guys haven't tried to replace -- to put a replacement bill up their bank. -- up there. i'm just kind of curious. i am on medicare and i would die without my medicare right now. i have sympathy for others. my point, when i want to ask you, with your plant -- would your plan -- you guys want to go up there and you know it would be difficult to pass a new health care reform bill. you waited so long and it seems like the republicans put all their eggs in one basket by attacking obamacare, whether you agree with that or not, you have got to say that they tried. now you guys want to put a replacement bill oup there, and i'm curious if you're doing this just because there is an

election coming up or are you actually going to have legislation that can be scored and scrutinized by the cbo or whatever so that people can see if what your bill is offering is going to be better? because just throwing it out there before the election, you are playing with people's health care and people's lives and i just think that being honest about it -- go ahead and put a real help to plan out there is real help to plan out there. -- put a real help to plan out there. i have a hard to believe it, as polarized as it is, that you guys can afford health care in a different way -- can reform health care in a different way. guest: you make several very good points. you are right about the polarization and the difficulty of this. i've never understood why health care is a port is an issue -- a partisan issue. it is too important. what are the reasons the american people are pushing back is that this is done by a single party could i came here -- i

left my medical practice of 31 years to come to this congress. i am not a career politician. i'm a practicing doctor for 31 years in a johnson city, tennessee, and very proud of that. andme up here to work on it we have a health-care bill that is 25 pages long that most people never read. i did. amend the bill and was not allowed to do it. it was a straight partyline vote and that is why it has a mid-30's approval rating right now. i agree with you, it is difficult to do. we've had these ideas for several years. over 40 republican health-care bills. what we did is put it in a single piece of legislation. i agree with you, it will be difficult to do. just because something is difficult to do doesn't mean you shouldn't try to do it. host: front page of "the new york times" this morning, "gop, though deeply split, has the election edge" heading into

2014, because of those self described independent voters saying they are leaning towards republicans. times" "the new york this morning. inside the newspaper, they ask, would you ever vote for a candidate who does not share you views on this issue or is it so important that you could not vote for candidate who did agree with you? the 2010 health-care law, 31% 4%id they would vote, 6 said they would not vote for candidate who did not share your views on this issue. you're talking about the health-care law and its unpopularity and you can see how it ties in there. hi, debbie. caller: yes, good morning. guest: morning. i'm 66 years old and i've never gotten a question about anything with what they use on my taxes. guest: me either. caller: yeah, well, you like using polls.

congress is 18% but you still exist. i work with an organization here in philadelphia. we are sending a people all the time. that are very, very glad they have health care. that weave something may like some of and we may not like some of. so we use these polls to, like the gentleman said, this is an election year. i heard you say that this is not a republican or democrat -- oh, the republicans are the ones talking about repealing and the democrats are talking about keeping. this is all about politics. medicaid, youlude did include medicare, but he courted salaries of people who have $60,000? how many people you think have $60,000 salaries with the taxes they take and they can have a health-care savings debit card? you're not even being realistic! host: all right, debbie, we will

have commerce been phil roe respond. -- congressman phil roe respond. guest: actually, i am being realistic, and i was living recently in rural appalachian tennessee where we took care of everybody, whether they had insurance or they didn't. most people may not be aware of this, but in a hospital, but if you accept medicare patients, there was a law that was passed in 1986, and you would want us to do this anyway, but we take care of you whether you are legally here in the statute or not legally an whether you could pay or not. i am proud of that, i think that is a good thing. we want to cover everybody could we just think, debbie, there is a better way to do it, and a less-expensive way to do it. earlierthe gentleman pointed out how much money we spend on health care in this country. i totally agree. with the money that is available now, we can cover all the people in america if we spend our money more wisely. host: clifford in florida,

democratic living. -- democratic caller. caller: yes, i would like to ask this fellow, the whole deal about doing the affordable care act was to get the insurance committees to come down in their prices. you keep saying that the president said that people could keep their doctors. the president didn't say that they couldn't keep their doctors. the insurance companies said that they can't keep their doctors. all of this was to get the insurance companies to come down on their rates and treat us with respect. none of this is being accomplished. all of this is political jive talking back and forth with no plans to help people with their health care. guest: well, i think you make a couple good points, but not quite as -- not quite like i would make them. i agree with you. i am not here to leading insurance company -- i'm not here cheerleading the insurance companies. but when they sell a product,

that is described why the government that to be qualified, you have to have 10 essential health benefits that have to be included in the package. that wasn't the insurance companies' fault they had to provide all that. they have to do that and there is a cost to that. to make it semi-affordable, what people have done, as you heard our caller from new hampshire, is go out-of-pocket and go way up to make the numbers work. host: what would your proposal to to get insurance companies to bring the rates down? guest: yesterday we had a hearing on the subcommittee that i chair, health employment, labor, and pensions on self funded plans. don't know what this plan is, if you get your health insurance through your work -- it was passed in 1974 and said that these are the things that have to happen. you cannot disseminate based on pre-existing conditions, you have to provide the same policy for everybody. you can do that through

self-insured. city, they of johnson mayor used a self-insurance plan. this is a way that you could basically get the insurance company out of it and decide what your organization wants to revive for its employees -- once to provide for its in place. -- wants to provide for its employees. and that is and that is included in your plan? guest: the law is working fine. host: there are republican proposals for the affordable care act that are being debated within the party. when will this take place? guest: i think it will be fairly soon. i am going to leave the c-span studios and go to the national press club next and we will discuss dr. tom price's bill, this bill, and the senate bill, the republican senate bill. there will be an interesting

discussion if people want to tune in on that. host: when do you expect whatever the republicans pick to come down to the floor for a vote? guest: i can't predict. i would prefer sooner rather than later. host: republican phil roe, -- congressman phil roe, republican from tennessee, thank you for being here. appreciate your time. guest: thank you. host: up next, xavier becerra will be here, democrat from telephonic, talking about raising the minimum wage and other priorities. poter, a special on the industry in colorado. first, an update from c-span radio. >> dozens of heavily armed gunmen seize control of government buildings in the ukraine crimea region today. they raise the russian flag. the moves escalated tensions in ukraine as the population is

divided loyalties between russia and the west. this as someone hundred 50,000 russian soldiers are carrying andmilitary exercises patrolling the border. russia says it has granted protection to fugitive ukraine president viktor yanukovych, who russian news agencies report is in a sanatorium near moscow. mr.? which fled -- mr.? yankovych fled kiev last week. leader has been approved as the next prime minister but he says that the country's future lies in their opinion and with family relationships with russia and said that ukraine does not want to fight with russia. those are the latest headlines on c-span radio. websiteew cspan.org makes it easier than ever to

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funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter. >> "washington journal" continues. host: and we are back with congressman xavier becerra, democrat from california, also the chairman of the democratic congress come us it's on the ways and means committee as well. what is the list of to-do items for the democratic party in 2014? guest: we would like to give most americans are raised. it is time for americans with the lowest to note that they will stay out of poverty even if they were coupled his job. some 20 worked a full day's job. some 25,000 americans working should get a raise in the minimum wage. host: is it politically

possible? absolutely, virtually every democrat, if not every democrat, will support an increase in the minimum wage in the house. there were 75 republicans the last time we raise the wage who voted for it, and half of those are still in the house. 33, 34 republicans who voted for a minimum-wage wage increase the last time who are still here. we hope that they continue to be consistent with the previous vote. host: house democratic leadership pushing the issue by filing a discharge petition. for those outside of washington, explained his elementary tool. when you are in the minority and house of representatives you have no ability to determine what gets on the floor for a vote. you have to depend on the majority area that is why we have seen delays and immigration reform because republicans have been reluctant to put a vote on the floor for immigration reform. they are reluctant to put a vote on the floor for a jobs agenda.

on the minimum wage, john boehner put up a brick wall before he would allow a minimum wage vote. what we did is use the discharge petition, which is a procedural if weer that allows us can get a majority of the members to sign this petition to force the leadership to allow us to have a vote. 18's, republicans. how many have you gotten the signed on? guest: we will find out today how many we have so far, but we hope to get as many as possible, .s quickly as possible this is one aspect of jobs agenda, to get back to work. host: you forecast this move in recent days. republicans knew it was coming. you did not have any takers right away from the republican party? guest: we have a few who indicated they are supportive of increasing the minimum wage in the past could not have said publicly that they would sign the discharge position. we are not here -- we did not get elected to do nothing.

i hope that those colleagues who have supported a minimum wage increase in the past will follow through with their convictions actually support this discharge petition. senate majority leader harry reid from nevada said he would put a minimum wage proposal on the floor. democrats control that chamber. he has delayed the vote. what is happening over there? guest: the senate works slower because their rules allow the minority as well if the majority to put amendments. unlike the house from where the houses to get a completely by the majority, the move -- the senate moves a little slower because it is a more collegial body. he has indicated that he is committed to bring a vote on the floor but that is all we are asking. have the republican speaker, john boehner data, to let us have a vote. applicants don't have to vote for it if it -- republicans don't have to vote for it if they don't want to. just have the vote. like 70% of americans, we will find that there will be support to increase the minimum wage. host: bloomberg headline -- wage assists on $10.10

some and party said to talk." are you open to lower rates? guest: the discharge petition calls for $10.10 an hour and we think that is not only fair, but it was what you need to do to make sure that someone who works full-time does not have to drive home from work to a food pantry to pick up food so that the family will have something to eat. the average age of someone who is on the minimum wage is 35. is not some teenager waiting tables. you are talking about folks who have to feed a family. if you are making the minimum wage, you make $14,500 a year. that is one months work for a member of congress. we have to help those americans and reward work. host: here is democratic senator mark warner from virginia on the minimum wage. host: why not be open to some

increase? wouldn't it be better than no increase? guest: we are open in the sense that $10 and cents -- $10.10 is what a lot of folks believe would be a fair wage. i would like t a to be higher, because that is not a living wage, especially not in los angeles, california. it is not get you to where it should be. it gets you to a little bit better less than $7.25 an hour. $10.10 is essentially a compromise from those who would like to have seen a high which to those who say, let's do a little less. host: let's get a phone calls. georgia. in hi there. caller: this is what i want to send you, representative. what is the democrats doing about the voting? sisters, thes and

hispanics don't get and it doesn't get out and vote, -- don't get out and vote, then african americans -- you talk about the minimum wage. we are here in the south. it a lot of my hispanic brothers and sisters of here, too, and you know this right to work state. you tell me how would you go about getting people involved my brothers and sisters of the hispanic race and blackout to vote in this upcoming election, because you know yourself that if we don't get out and vote, president obama, he has no chance. i hear what you are talking about the minimum wage, but if you don't get people in your community and in my community to get out and tell the truth, you know we lost an election because we did not get out and vote in 2010 -- host: all right, we got your point. makes a think latoya

great point and you are absolutely right, too many americans are not voting at many of those are from the african-american and latino communities. absolutely true. -- youngican market african americans and young latinos are a big part of that group not getting out to vote. we have to provide a reason to vote. we have to show that this congress wants to work for them. hopefully they will see the value in knowing what their representatives are paid a lot of people have given up completely and say that it doesn't make a difference. it is almost door-to-door combat. what you are trying to do is thet those elements, discussed, or the people who are just fed up with politics, and say that we are going to walk door-to-door and asked folks if they would please help us improve the voting record in our community. if i could find you, i would take you with me, because i suspect you have the energy it takes to go knocking door-to-door to convince people it is time to vote. host: "usa today close quote has today" has- "usa

this story. "an announcement today aided by former president bill clinton, the dnc says it will soften find a permanent effort and 12 battleground states working for early an online voter registration and loss and against a identification laws to combat what it calls gop efforts to suppress voting." what role will bill clinton play this? guest: i hope you will not only create enthusiasm to vote but he will bring attention to those efforts in some parts of the toya is probably aware of this, where there is a concerted effort to suppress the vote. we have to fight that as hard as we can. it is on at 2 fronts -- making their there is -- making sure there is enthusiasm to go out and vote, and making sure that the laws don't prevent people from getting out of a. -- getting out to vote. host: hi, tim.

caller: i just wanted to make a comment about the comparisons between countries that actually that areinimum wages much, much higher than the united states, and the relative success that they seem to have, actually, and remaining economically stable. complaintsbiggest attractors have is that it is going to be a jocular, the people are not going to -- that it is going to be a job killer, that employers are not going to hire as many people. but you look at canada and australia, yes, they are smaller countries and they have a more cynically involved population in that they pay slightly -- civically involve publishing and that they pay slightly higher taxes. all in all, they fared much better than the united states did in the economic crisis we just experienced. i think that has a lot to do with consumer confidence, when

you have consumers who it feel more secure in their employment and their income. they will consume and they will also keep their jobs longer than those who are on minimum wage. to me, it is a real no-brainer. , you are absolutely right. i think you said it as well as anyone can. what we find is that if you have more disposable income in your pocket, because you are earning a little but more, you will use it for the right reasons. we are not talking about making folks rich. this will not take you go out and start shopping for a yacht. it means you can probably buy an excerpt our shoes for your daughter, it means that you can washer, and itken creates more economic activity throughout the neighborhood. you will be able to buy more from the grocery store and use the services of the mechanic could that helps the entire economy and the ripple effect is tremendous when you have folks who do not have watched disposable income have a little bit more because they use it for all the great reasons that

create economic activity. tim, you are right on the money. host: california, republican caller. caller: what we got to get back to his checks and balances. there's nothing there to gauge where the money is coming from or where it is going. when we have the gold standard -- how do you keep it honest without any kind of balance? where is the money going? now they just keep printing money, print print print, no backing, eventually it is going to bust. host: you're talking about spending overall? caller: i'm talking about you got have some checks and balances. right now with the federal reserve, gold certificate -- host: all right, got your point. guest: i think joseph is exposing what a lot of folks have exposed, the concern that we are not keeping tabs on how

much we are spending. as the federal government began issue money and we can issue it in all sorts of ways and at some point we pay it back. it is one of those things that we have to watch. i think in this case the dollar is safe -- the country is safe because the dollar is the currency of choice around the world. but joseph is right, you have to make sure you are not overprinting american dollars. i would be concerned about the inability to attract money in campaigns. so much money is infiltrated and political elections that it is tough to know where the money is coming from. so much money is coming through without disclosure, without the donor having to reveal who he or she is. we don't know in some cases of the political money is used to influence elections and whether it came from a foreign government, from a foreign source, from laundered money could we have no idea because the loopholes in the tax law allow people to pump money into

what are called social welfare campaigns under the tax code, and ultimately, use that money not for social welfare but for political reasons. the senate banking committee today will hear from federal reserve chairman janet yellin. the hearing has been delayed because of weather here in washington for 2 weeks. newspapers and reporters are looking for her to make some news on the u.s. economic outlook for this year and economic growth. she might say something different from what she has been saying and her previous 2 hearings. we are talking with congressman xavier becerra, democrat from california, but the legislative priorities for 2014. florida, democratic caller. theer: i want to ask congressman with respect to the minimum wage, trying to get it raised, if you listened to the congressman prior to you talking about the health care changes of the republicans, how that is going to impact their wages if

they are not going to be included in the republican health care package? , that is going to create additional problems for them. what do you think of the republican proposal? guest: we haven't seen the republican proposal. it has been a 4 years since we passed the republican -- affordable care act and we have yet to see the republican proposal. we keep hearing they want to do something but we have yet to see it. close to 14 million americans today have helped security did not have a four as a result of the a formal contract -- they did not have before as a result of the affordable care act. they will ever have to go bankrupt because of a health-care bill. if you look at the record, it used to be the case that the reason most people in america filed for personal bankruptcy, health-care bills. he center dot or to the hospital and you could not pay the final bill -- you send your. at the hospital and you cannot pay the final bill and he went bankrupt

co. in terms of what might happen if the republicans try to repeal the affordable care act, if you are on minimum wage, it is even tougher, because the only reason today that some of these minimum wage workers will have access to health care is because of the affordable care act. they will be able to afford -- they will have to pay something but not that much, because you and i as taxpayers are helping them through tax credits. that is why already today 13 million, closed up 14 and nine -- close to 14 million americans have health security. host: the publicans think they have the edge over the issue of health care. -- the publicans think they have the edge over the show health care. "the new york times" this "gop, though deeply split, has election edge." a lot of money spent against

them credit and it's, those up for -- spent against democratic candidates, those up for reelection. let's look at this one in arizona that highlights the toocratic freshman's ties the affordable care act. [video clip] -- blew the whistle on the disastrous health care act. >> timeout. she refused to process the website for weeks, hardly blowing the whistle. days ago, she voted against the bipartisan bill to fix the website. still loyal to obamacare, not us. and fitzpatrick -- she cause the problems, she is the problem. host: congressman? perplexeduess that is -- that is where politics has gotten more you can bet against americans. if politicians want to run ads and bet against the 14 million

americans, i guess you can do that. but it used to be that we tried to lift up americans and you read for office to help -- you ran for office to help americans, not to downgrade those americans who all of a sudden have helped security that, greta, you and i probably take for granted. democrats are prepared to not only talk about health security for americans, but economic security. that is why we want to increase the minimum wage and have equal pay for equal work for women. we believe we should have an agenda that says that the glasses only half full for america and it will continue to get more water, not that the glass is half empty and we are going down and we have seen are better years. no, we believe our better years are still to come? host: so democrats should run on the health-care law? guest: democrats should run on health security and the law has given a lot of americans health security. they no longer have to worry about going bankrupt it is the took their daughter to the hospital.

leadersenate majority harry reid is delaying it to make it an issue during the 2014 campaign and doesn't want the media to talk about obamacare." are 25look, there million or so americans who are working today. . they were just as hard as you -- they are working just as hard as you and i did, and they will get less than you or i. they will have to stop by a food pantry on the way home from work to feed a family well. that should not happen in america. we should reward work. youou work really hard, have earned a chance to not live in poverty. this is not for us an issue that should be done right before the november election. this should have been done a while ago. there is no reason why we should have allowed the minimum wage to lose so much of value over time. it is time to give those americans who work just as hard as us are raised so that they

can finally say that they are not going to live in poverty. the minimum wage increase would lift at least one million immigrants from poverty. that is something good. we are not talking just about teenagers waiting tables. we are talking about the average minimum wage worker being 35 years of age. host: what about the cost of living? marie is absolutely right pay the cost of food, gasoline, shoulder, energy, all of that has gone up. the minimum wage has not increased in many years even though the cost of all the basic items you have to buy has. what we are trying to do is make sure that the minimum wage keeps pace so that not every year when you put in a four years work you don't find that you are worse off than you were the year before. my father was a road construction worker could he do not get past the sixth grade.

but because he was able to be rewarded for his work, he made sure that 4 kids went to college . i would love to see us get back to those days when we reward americans for working hard for their country. the minimum wage at $7.25 an hour does not reward people who are willing to put in a 40-hour day. we need you let them know that -- we need to let them know that we appreciate what they are doing for this country and we need to reward their work. host: another treat for you. -- tweet for you. guest: great question. that is another issue democrats are working on. we don't believe our luck to be written so that a company gets a tax -- we don't believe our law should be written so that a company gets a tax break if they ship jobs overseas. the tax code and other aspects of our law are written so that a company can get a tax break when it creates a job in another country. she is absolutely right.

not only do we have to increase the minimum wage, but as i said before, we have to get rid of this situation where a woman makes less than a man for the same kind of work and we also have to make sure that we focus on americans. when we have a law in place, especially in our tax laws, we should have your wedding countries that take american job -- we should not be rewarding countries that take american jobs are from again leave america unemployed. host: the ways and means committee -- what do you make of your chairman's proposal on tax reform, dave camp, republican from michigan? guest: we are only now going to be introduced to it today. we will have a chance to walk through parts of it. the republicans did not sure if a lot of information with the democrats and the house on this. we will see what it does. for me, it has to make things simpler, it has to make things fair, it has to help reduce deficits. if it doesn't do that, then why are we doing it except perhaps for special interests?

isis 900 pages long so it tough for me to believe it is a simple tax, but we will see. says "the washington post" "dead on arrival," but they endorse it. "mr. camp tax plan is a serious approach to is used u -- to a serious problems were of course it has no chance." caller from tennessee. caller: congressman, i'm curious if you know that on the number for social security, there is a t to get-- one-hour wai a call through. second. aside for a he issues the minimum wage. i'm curious if you would lay down the, that any member -- lay down the gauntlet that any member of congress, republican or democrat, house or senate, would lift one month on the

minimum wage and not even have to work the job. just live on the minimum wage for one month. find a place in the projects and see if they could survive. i would be willing to bet you that there is not one member of congress who would take that to i would like to hear comment on that issue. i'm not sure where you are from but i would like to vote for you for congress. host: nashville, tennessee. guest: i will have to move to nashville. i'm glad you are outraged as some of us that we have to wait one hour on the one 800 number for social security. why? congress, in the succession to has cut the social security budget dramatically and they have lost thousands of workers over the last few years. they have a budget today that is smaller than it was in 2010. they are being asked to do even

more because the baby boomers continue to retire. the social security administration has had to make cuts in different services. one of those is the telephone service. another is in work hours. they have produced their work hours and in some cases they have closed on certain days of the week. -- they have reduced their work hours and in some cases they have closed on certain days of the week. that is because of his obsession with cut cut cut. social security has a surplus of dollars, $2.7 trillion, and yet this commerce was unwilling to give the social security administration some of that money so that it is meeting the needs of all social security recipients. in terms of the minimum wage and what you said it vertically. -- in terms of the minimum wage, you said it perfectly. there are members of crimes that would not survive a week on the minimum wage, and yet they are willing -- unwilling to reward americans who work very hard and it seemed the value of the work eroded because inflation has made it more difficult to find

the food and shelter and fuel that they need. it is time to tell those americans that we care about them as much as we care for our own families. 25 million americans would be helped by this, over one million immediately lifted out of poverty if we were to raise the minimum wage. robert, you are absolutely right. you willve to l.a., have my vote, or maybe at some point i will go to nashville. host: the number of people applying for on implement benefits rose to 14,000 -- rose 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000. the broader trend remained stable. what do you make of those numbers? guest: americans are still hurting. more than 8 million jobs created in the last 3.5 years. the difficulty is this, greta, and i suspect this is one of robert's points -- it is still tough out there. there are more people looking for a job than there are jobs available. what we have to do something

that this congress, the house republicans have refused to give ,s a chance to vote on reestablishing unemployment insurance for those americans who have had a really tough time and are out there and if lost a lot of these americans are barely holding on, barely making their mortgage payment. early making payments on any health care bills. all of a sudden now they are cut off. time to deal with unemployment insurance and give americans a chance to get back to work. close to 2 million suffer as a result of this. it is just not right. >> here's an e-mail for you from one of the viewers. receivedmocrats have increases for food and energy at of the inflationary index when giving an increase to social security recipients. causing seniors to pay more for

medicare and health care. >> who sent that? >> this is if you were -- vier. wer. guest: i disagree with everything you have just said. i feel badly and someone uses wrong numbers to try to make point. if you want to talk about the facts of life i'm a we have a history that shows when we increase the minimum wage, we give the more buying power. increase in minimum wage will have no impact on social security recipients. what we find is they have arty paid aren't -- paid into social security. time, by making the economy turn more, have more activity, it will make it better

for everyone, including seniors. that means we want a good economy. everyone benefits when the economy moves forward. whatever this anonymous e-mail or was, i have to tell them, stop whining. >> an e-mail from marcella who e-mails, raising the minimum wage is wonderful, but want the increase by employers be passed on to consumers, including those that got the raise? >> i think part of that would be passed onto consumers. pennies on the dollars compared to the increase in minimum wage workers will get. will you have to pay more? maybe a couple of cents. maybe a penny or two more. it will be comforting to know that the person next to you ordering the big mac or next to you is a minimum-wage worker who can now buy the big mac or salary he cuts he or she got the

raise. that is what makes the economy work. if they are not -- if they are working and not making enough to get out of poverty, at some point they may just give up or fall into the crack. they may have a medical bill they cannot pay for and all of a sudden they go bankrupt. we have to make sure we have as many americans as we can working and working hard. i think you would agree you would rather have someone standing next to you in a grocery line by and good groceries rather than someone who cannot afford it and trying to figure out how to make ends meet. >> we have about 15 minutes left with a congressman democrats of california, chairman of the democratic caucus. elected in 1992 and represents the 34th the strict of california. going to brett emily asiana. >> good morning. i am very conservative.

i do not really care if you have a d or r in front of your name. for thehat is right country. there is a philosophical difference that i do not care to get into with you today, the fact that we are having the conversation goes to speak a lot about the state of the economy. any job is a good job, but a high percentage of this has gone to this. number two, education system. why do we have 35-year-old people stuck in a minimum -- minimum-wage job, which is responsibility and people working their way up the ladder. i started my first job at 13 years old sacking groceries. i have friends who are still cashiers and baggers in the store. part of the reason is they made a choice to stay there. instead of treating the problem,

my biggest problem with democrat is they want to treat the symptom. instead of saying why aren't you moving up the ladder, they pay more money. that makes a difference when that does notne have any sense at all, does not want to work their way up the ladder and shows up to work late and does not care about doing things right making almost as much money as them. glad you are one of those who looks at the candidate and values and not the political association. i would say i agree with 98% of what you said. about the only thing i would not agree is democrats try to defeat the symptom, not the problem. lifting the minimum wage is not trying to peek the system. this tries to address the problem.

too many people ignore the fact that you have people working very hard. the way i did and know my parents did. yet they are not able to get a raise. they are not able to get the power to get away. tough formakes it those making minimum wage. saying you should pay me more. so what we have to do is exactly what you say, trained folks and educate folks because we need to make sure people can get out of the lower paid jobs into better paid jobs. i would disagree we are trying to treat only the symptoms. taking sure everyone has the opportunity. as i said, rework work. the most important thing we can do is get back to the days where we reward. my father started working when he was about seven years of age shining shoes. the oldest of eight kids and had no choice but to start working.

and he became a construction worker. hard to makelly sure his kids did. they can now help parents. that is what we are going to do. was your dad raced here? -- raised here? the u.s. was born in but faced a lot of discrimination. he would go to restaurants that said no dogs or mexicans allowed. even though he was a u.s. citizen, he could not walk into restaurants. i feel very proud. that is this country. that is the beauty of this country. i think brent has the right attitude, forget about the party affiliation. about making sure we reward work.

was your dad union? he was. he lost a lot of blood. i was very young. my parents did not have to worry about taking him to the hospital because with the health insurance, we were able to cover the cost. the union really helped. you may not agree with me on this, but by being a part of the union, my dad got paid a decent wage. union, het into the got a decent wage. it is not much. not too many road construction workers today who can do what my dad did a generation ago. host: do you remember what he made per hour? guest: i got to work with him in college. i have a great deal of pride knowing i was able to pull the jackhammer out of his hand and

do it for him. about $13-14 dollars per hour. way back in the late 1970's and 1980's. he was doing a little bit more. was a decent wage, you do not get a whole bunch more players -- was not getting a whole bunch more. age was he able to retire here? guest: we forced him to retire in the late 50's because of the physical toll on his body. the tendons in his hands are fused. his back is that. this worked very hard for this country. >> going to michigan. i have been on the line for 10 minutes. can you hear me?

i will give you my thoughts about the minimum wage. it is great to have these for young people. there is one thing i want to bring up to you while. no one says anything about social security. $17 rage for a year. -- wage for a year. president obama would not negotiate. he must be out of his mind. second time i did not vote for him because i did not like some of the things he said. insurance,pay car home insurance, taxes.

how are we supposed to keep our bills paid on a 17 thousand dollar raise on social security? host: how much do you get a month from social security? $1100. i get what he isjesse, referring to is the cola increase. every year we take a look at what the cost of living has been from the previous year. if it has increased the amount you need to survive at the state raid -- same rate you did last year, we give an increase called the cola increase. $17 is probably what jesse got a cola increase. the cost of medicine continues to go up. paying for your home very expensive. iseresting fact, jesse

making around the same amount as a social security recipient of the minimum wage worker makes for working full-time. you heard them talk about how hard it is to survive. the point on social security, what the president discussed and was willing to do a while ago is say to republicans, you are looking to make cuts to social security. they want to go into the cola increase. they wanted to chain the cpi and reduce the amount of cola you would get. in order to get to a big deal on and have a big deal so we can get to the more important things like educating country and training for the jobs of tomorrow, the president said i am willing to do these things on social security, some of us do not support that either . it is clear they did not want to

do a grand bargain. he said i am pulling that off the table. this year the president not suggesting what the republicans have asked, which is to cut the cola. >> that is the headline on the money deadline. we will not be part of his budget. you are next in mississippi. caller: yes. am i on the air? yes, sir. i am off of -- also associates number.l security settling for two cents more. not accomplish anything by attending minimum wage because everything else will go up as it has in the past.

when i started working back in the day, everything went up. you can give a raise to people, yet everything is going up. will beou worried you unable to afford more goods and services because of the prices going up cap don't caller: it is a proven fact. from how much do you get social security per month and after you pay the bills, what is the disposable income? your car insurance, health insurance, and since country that has come through, everything down here is skyhigh. keep thefor us to people that we have, everything has went up.

health insurance, i speak to several people. like i need you to tell me what the disposable income is after you pay the bills. >> little to nothing. if i can afford to go to the grocery store, i have to go to the food pantry myself and get food. coming on down here to mississippi and leave your credit card at home. trying to live off of social security income. the if your family can live off of it. guest: i cannot argue with albert or what he said how difficult it is. at the same time, you were receiving social security because you worked in that is why you are getting social security, but you are getting around what a minimum-wage worker is getting. if it is tough for you, imagine

a minimum-wage worker, especially if they are supporting a family with that wage. that is why we are talking about finally getting the minimum wage to be closer to what it used to be. ready for increasing cost. things you will not even notice because it is so miniscule. the company that manufactured and produced will be so much more. tens of millions of americans that have more disposable income to sell war, which means the businessman or businesswoman will be doing better. sharehey might be able to that with other employees. if the economy improves come away for you will improve as well as the minimum-wage worker. >> thank you very much for the conversation. host: harry smith joins us from

new york to discuss his new special looking at the marijuana industry in colorado. first, a news update. >> president obama sends the proposal on the budget to congress next week. as part of the request, he will ask congress to approve spending more than five oh yen dollars on medical training to turn out 13,000 primary care providers over the next 10 years. the new funding is aimed at training doctors that can work in underserved areas come including for rural communities. this will seek to expand the national health service corps, a program that connects for primary care physicians with communities in need. president obama wants to expand the core from 8900 providers to 15,000 over the next six years. the associated press says the president's health care law has sparked concerns about a shortage of primary care

physicians as more americans gain insurance coverage. today the president unveiled an initiative that he says is aimed at breaking down obstacles that is proportionately keep african-american men in power first and behind bars. the president will call on businesses and leaders to join forces to put more boys on the path to successful lives. foundations have pledged at least $200 million over five brother promote right -- my brother's keeper initiative, which will focus on keeping young people in school. that event.cover those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. this is a technique that you will hope will improve -- proved fruitful. >> >> i think it would have less

roots per hollywood se but something to do with the he had as anace actor. he always hit his mark. it is another aspect of grammar -- glamour. they did not make him embarrassed in any way, waiting for him to fail. as he got older, that became an issue, but especially in the early days he had this -- a word that i used in the book, 16th-century book about how to

see a politician of the day. host: talking shortly with gary smith. -- harry smith. he has a new special that aired tonight and will re-air tonight. looking at colorado and the legal marijuana sales made possible by a new law that went into effect this year. here is a look at this. colorado pot rush. >> come along on a ride with us. we are about to take you on a place unlike any other. marijuana is legal. a sense of money is in the air. smoked a joint.

>> i no longer have to feel like a criminal. i am not doing anything wrong. kevin and rachel are pot to a risk, so happy to be a mile high. joining us from new york, harry smith. let's begin with what led you to this story and to put together this special. first states in the nation to make recreational marijuana legal, let alone first place in the world to say this is something we will do in a legal way. will eat cookies and what have you. nation of the netherlands turn the shoulder to say it is ok. the worldplace in

where recreational sale of marijuana is legal. guest: what did yohost: what di? www.c-span.org [laughter] that the size of the business is so much larger than anyone anticipated. the state of colorado aim out last week that they think in the fiscal year to come amid they think the marijuana business in colorado alone will be worth $1 billion. that isa phenomenon taking the stage by storm. page ofick up the front the new york times this morning, moving state by state by state. likely be on the ballots this year in alaska. probably coming soon to rhode island. lots of states are talking about it, not only from legalization from a freedom issue, but in that they think they can collect as a result of

legal marijuana. what do you think states that are looking at this can learn from colorado and the peace you put together atco time: we spent a lot of with the governor, a pretty small guy. he calls what is going on in colorado a great social experiment. if it really is a social experiment, colorado is the petri dish in which all the other state should keep an eye on. the nationalat governors association conference this past weekend come and he everyone to take it slow. this is unchartered territory. if states and legislatures are seeing dollar signs, what no one really knows is the cost of this. what is the social cost? are people going to be driving high? addiction rates going up? what is the cost of having a

society that says this is something that is ok with us? host: listening a little bit to what the governor had to say to you when you sat down with him for the special. you could become as the stoner state. >> we have had three new fortune 500 companies in the past three years. we are very proud of that. some employers will think twice. acutely awarer is that being the first on the path means his state has no blueprint to follow. of us realize it will be a great social experiment. >> i spent 16 years in the restaurant business and it is a great social experiment.

host: how are they going about it? the business is highly regulated. there are a lot of bureaucratic hoops you have to go through in order to go into the marijuana business. if you think i am going to put the business over here and sell from seed toide, sale. very highly regulated business. doing their best to get control of what is this kind of exploding geyser, so to speak. as he says, everything they do is thinking, trying to think out-of-the-box and get control of this and make sure it works out for everyone's benefit. at least two of many people's benefit as possible.

host: what is the cost to be part of the industry their? guest: the profits are phenomenal. we talked to one of the guys that was a lawyer. of his law partners came up to him a couple of years ago and said why don't we open up a shop that only deals with the marijuana trade? aat in and of itself is pretty lucrative idea. this guy said why don't we just cut to the chase and go into the marijuana business? i asked him, what is it like being in the marijuana business? he said it is like holding a winning lottery ticket. the people in this and know what they are doing are making serious money. also, there are people who did not know what they are doing or do not have business acumen and will be weeded out very quickly.

host: so there will be losers in this? guest: of course there will. just like any other business proposition. the people who know what they are doing will continue to prosper. clue that have less of a will probably get gobbled up by the ones that do. what you saw in colorado on the business landscape? all of the different businesses that are trying to be a part of this movement. stunning because one of the things i was completely unaware of him and for those of us on the east coast that have not been exposed to merit -- medical marijuana, at least from my perspective, it is a de facto legalization. if you want to get medical marijuana tom it is very, very easy to get a prescription for it. medical or one

almost have a de facto legalization. york, there in new is nothing within hundreds of miles that we can use as an example. is like athere and it brave new world. one of the things i was stunned by was the fact that people smoke marijuana and use all kinds of edible raw ducks. 40% of the business right now is in edibles and non-smokable's. you go to a marijuana shop and there are always chocolate bars and laced with highly refined and super ash oil, basically .arijuana squeeze together that is one aspect. the other aspect are the things thathave easily correct have used super purified hash

oil. that is a huge part of the business. if you think you're going to go out there and buy this, there are all these other things to buy. as a result, some of the the manufacturing of that, they cannot grow fast enough to meet the demand. host: going to phone calls. paul in massachusetts. republican collar. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have a two-part question. the first part is where is the marijuana being grown? and who is doing the roebling? -- growing? host: in colorado, if you grow with, you have to sell it yourself. it is fairly new. there is no separation. they feel like they have better control.

host: next caller. years: i spent about 20 smoking marijuana and stopped and feel so much better in every way. the real question is about why do we want to smoke it? put pot in the pipe and smoke it and are intoxicated. the question is, why do we want to escape reality? spiritually, physically, and mentally. why do we want to escape cap: guest? guest: that is the part of the question that what is the part of the social contract? you saw enforcement people you talk to, drug addiction experts, what we will do is

take one more intoxicant and put it into the public square and say it is ok to use. one thing they know for sure is marijuana has a series -- serious affect on the brains of young people. if you're going to move to colorado and you have a 14-year-old boy who says they say it is legal and how can it be that much different than beer ? turns out a lot different, especially on a kid's brain. a lot of moving parts to this issue. very interesting who is on the side of legalizing. demographically, the younger you are the more likely you are to say it is a good idea. gallup poll says 58% in click a was a and is a good idea. libertarians say this is personal responsibility and personal freedom, why should we restrict access to it? a huge conversation of the

country is just now starting to have. colorado is the place where if you want to look and see what is going on, that is the place to look and see it. runningrry smith together a special for cnbc. last night it aired. it will re-air again tonight at 8:00 eastern time. erewhon and america. issue.ighs in on the a social cost? no more stop in cops in neighborhoods. guest: it is very interesting. a lot of the people we talked to said decriminalization is a very good idea.

people say shouldn't be decriminalized? probably yeah. i think maybe the best idea is to take baby steps. that is just my experience from being involved in this in the past month or so. host: what is happening in colorado on the issue of criminal and legal issues? have a face more problems because of it? we talk to the district attorney in boulder am a for instance, and people say that is the people's republic. is aistrict attorney there big law and order guy. attorney ofdistrict the state. he said when it comes to paneling a journey of a

marijuana case, he said no one cares. he senses that maybe this really is the way to go. the last e-mail sent let's take it out of the hands of the criminal population. make sure the state has as much regulatory control as possible, and if we can watch it that way and make -- watch how it is distributed, make -- maybe we can not only decriminalize it but take it out -- out of the criminal population. if you sell it as a recreational drug, people would use it as people use alcohol. there are so many -- i said over and over again, it is like watching a genie come out of a bottle. we have no idea what will continue to happen as this genie continues to grow and grow. look into the

impact of this on drug dealers? a drug dealer in boulder who said his business is as good as ever. he said the price of marijuana in the retail stores is so high that he has undercut it easily. a lot of marijuana and one-yeare one billion dollars. that is a lot. , we are beating the metaphors to death but this is the tip of the iceberg. the demand or it is quite substantial. host: boring file clerk tweets

-- that is the thing, and i think that is what he is saying, do not be so tempted that was just on the outside looks attractive to you. lifted inbition was 1933 they said all the years before when the movement was going on, said it is bad for society etc. etc., all the years later they said maybe the social contract is worth the trade. we will take the bad stuff with the benefits of having best. he is talkingt about. legalizing an intoxicant. what the downside is, we're not really in a position to measure it yet. host: larry up next. republican collar from indiana. is, what isuestion

the legal ramifications for anijuana sales? we just had accident happen in south bend, indiana, where the gentleman driving the car was high on marijuana. do they have the same response as a bartender selling someone alcohol in go out? make a really good point, because this is all brand-new territory. so if we stop a guy who we think is driving high on that the only guy -- way you can find out content in someone's blood is through a blood test. to say will you consent to a blood test? the legal ramifications you suggest could be almost impotent. if the guy is using thc it

determined he caused the accident or maybe even kill someone on the highway, who then backwards of the food chain is responsible? bartender and the guy uses it andight over the counter walked out and kill someone, there is responsibility that way. hand, you will not go back to a liquor store and say you sold this guy a bottle of gin and he drove and killed somebody. it does not work that way. you pose a very interesting question. we have no idea where all of this goes. hickenlooper says stop, slow down and see how this plays out, and maybe as the states decide or not decide how to proceed, there will be a better roadmap. host: joan weighs in about the

quality of the popped. are there any regulations as far as pesticides on the plants? guest: there is a lot of new testing regulations going into affect so that if you go in and buy an edible and says it is that what itthc says on the label has to be backed up through testing. you asked about the businesses cropping up, that is another business is testing centers. the stuff they are selling in the stores is many more times more powerful than the stuff

that was around when i was in college for instance. there were dinosaurs on earth when i was in college. host: those tasting parties, want to show the viewers from the special you put together, your profile of jane west. fax at a private art gallery in denver, the tail crowd has shelled out $100 each to hobnob over hors d'oeuvres, fine wine, and locally cultivated but. -- bud. of colorado's more progressive precincts, this is the new normal. the cd confines of basements and back rooms, po t becoming a pick -- fixture of polite society. >> everone brought different samples. kind of like wine tasting. likes of jane west is the orchestrator of this. >> i put together this event.

clearly there is a market for this. people that want to be at this party. she is a suburban 37-year-old mother of two. she makes no apologies. >> i use marijuana, and that is ok. what did you make of the martha stewart of pot? guest: [laughter] one of the reasons we used that segment was the whole question of so is colorado wake up in the itst day of january and say is donor nation.

there are people using it from many walks of life using a on a fairly consistent basis. now they are just out of the closet so to speak. i spoke to a colleague whose husband was on a business trip in colorado, skied all afternoon and then would go down to breckenridge and buy pot. it is a different world than i think many of us suspect. when yout is it like are walking around the cities in colorado? do you see it everywhere yeah co? guest: only 150 retail stores right now. by the way, one of the other segments on the show, if people do not see it last night, it will be on again tonight, each town, each minute totality -- mu nicipality can allow if it wants to allow pot sales.

said wes a town that want to take a wait and see attitude. we do not want that in our town right now. talk to the police chief, really smart guy who has been in business -- been and policing for four years and said i have enough problems with what i have problems with now, why do i want to introduce the sale of another intoxicant into the community? he said here are all my fears. he said we wake up two or three years from now and fears are unfounded, that will be fine, but in the meantime, these are things i would rather not have to worry about. ,ost: jim in new york democratic caller. a greatthere is publication that i doubt anyone from cnbc would think about reading. they are getting very interesting statistics in california. they say in california during

growing season they use over 60 million gallons of water. also, they say by growing plants, it sucks up as much electricity as 29 refrigerators. they also talk about damage is being done to the environment by the way it is being grown in california. i agree that california might get around this, but it is doing a lot of damage to the environment the way it is being done in california. as it turns out, i did see that piece. the legalizers would say that is why this needs to be legalized. you go out into the wilderness in california, yes, they are using tremendous amounts of pesticides, herbicides and who knows what. the environmental this action is quite phenomenal.

this is marijuana growth outside the law. the legalizers would say that is one more reason to bring it under a state jurisdiction, because that way the environmental benefits even to legalizing marijuana. piece. great if people are interested in this as an issue, go on mother jones. host: a tweet from a viewer -- guest: which is what happened last week and san francisco. a mom had her daughter set up in of a medical marijuana dispensary and sold out 157 boxes in record time. excited -- aside, what are the under industries --

other industries popping up because of colorado? guest: that is the joke that' frito sales going through the roof in colorado. it is interesting as you look at this. one of the things we talked about was edible. people go out there and because it is so powerful it will take a bar in will want to consume the whole thing. because it is so edible and what is in it is so powerful they say take a bite, to bite, 45 minute and then see how you feel. a lot of people are so tempted by it, they would consume the whole thing, you will not talk for two days if you eat the whole thing. very powerful stuff. >> that is because of the hash oil. the thc level is 80-90% versus

regular marijuana, which is in the teens. how are they addressing the issue? guest: well, part of the regulation we talked about and the testing that goes on if you thehis bar has 30% tchc, state is trying to get a handle on making sure what they sell is not so super intoxicated. we solved some of what is being made, and they will take the into al now and make it clear sheet and chunk it up into tiny chunks and that is like a super potent kind of thc experience. listen, i have no idea. i was sitting there. but like i was flying by the seat of my pants. i have never seen anything like

it. in the states where the medical marijuana has been around for a couple of years, this is normal you sayr guys like me, holy cow, i had no idea. the production of hash oil can be dangerous. especially if you are doing it yourself. the guys with a very sophisticated system that we looked at, they spend small fortunes on the processing on the machinery. it is highly proprietary. as the legalization and the popularity of this stuff moves from state to state to state, what they then do is sell that system, at least the licensing in different states because you cannot transport over state lines. but the technology, the system -- sophistication of the

technology involved, is really quite astounding. if you want to try the processing, that really is one of those don't try this at home. independent caller. and thankod morning, you for taking my call. hashr as many fracturing oil, getting out of the shower can be dangerous. i would just like to make that point. my issue is the federal government, marijuana is still illegal, correct? get ahere in florida i group of people together and we decide to walk on our state legislature and say we want constitution, heroin and slavery legal, isn't that a form of secession? isn't it treason to go directly

against the federal law and then the federal government does nothing? guest: listen, i think that is a very interesting question. as you well know, the federal government said once they had a referendum and said we would legalize it, the federal government said we will not fight you about this. oft as i take russian, one the other huge issues is the banking industry does not want to get caught up. dois saying i will not business with a marijuana dealer because the federal government says it is schedule one and illegal. the owner comes out to say we will make it easier for you and the banking industry says you have not set the bar high enough and we are still not going to get involved in this. so we have all of these crazy

loopholes. of theorado, all marijuana businesses are all cash businesses. guys are walking into the western union office with pillowcases full of money to get money orders though they can pay their utility bills. it is pretty crazy. walking into pay their taxes with briefcases full of cash. it is really quite insane. until the federal government says maybe this is not a class one drug, maybe that will balance out in some way. secessiono sure it is necessarily, but you have the federal government and the state government that is really an opposition right now, at least in terms of pure law. host: talking with harry smith about his special that debuted

last night. if you missed it, it will re-air tonight at 8:00 eastern time. judy, republican collar. -- caller. this is theink wrong thing they are trying to do in florida. it isally when they say from god and grows from earth. so does oil humming out of the ground. are we supposed to drink that, to. i have a nephew on this for years and years and i pray every day god would deliver him. to me, i think a lot of people i know smoke this. a lot of them have bipolar and act crazy. a sad society that we are living stoned we have to stay all the time. get god in your heart, and you will have a natural hat. -- high. guest: no doubt about that.

which re-airs, tonight at 8:00 and again friday night at 10:00, we talked to drug addiction experts, and this is a serious concern that they guest 10% of the people exposed to marijuana like a lot of other intoxicants will become addicted. no one is really having a sense that as a society says, that this is ok that we use this. talking with chris matthews last night and he said i have a feeling we will wake up a couple of years from now in the state of colorado will be a lot less ambitious. insidious or innocent? i am not so sure it is one or the other or someplace in between. >> the caller from florida saying she disagrees with what they are doing their. as you mentioned, the front page says that at least 14 states, including florida where an initiative has artie qualified

for the ballot are considering medical marijuana laws this year , and according to the marijuana policy project that supports legalization in 12 states in the district of columbia contemplating decriminalization of marijuana. dorothy and colorado. caller: good morning. i would like her mr. smith to the a statistic on difference between domestic violence of alcoholics and the people who smoke marijuana. room ofetter be in a marijuana smokers tend to be in a room with people who drink alcohol. you have an uncle or aunt in the room, if they are in there more than two hours, that is going to build conflict. you get people who smoke marijuana in their, they are going to live, eat and enjoy themselves.

take a statistic for who beat their wife when they are drunk and who kills people when they are drunk. did you take a statistic of that? guest: listen, there is no question -- i do not have a statistic per se, but that is one of the big arguments when people measure alcohol and marijuana right next to each other, one of the big arguments is they say people who use alcohol for a lot of people, it makes them belligerent, it brings out the violent behavior. as we say, back in 1933 and we said we will stop using this, we said in the social contract that is a cost that we will agree that somehow habitable as long as we will legalize it again. from the legalizer, that is a big argument. they said the cops are not being

called the domestic violence disputes because somebody got stoned. as you really talk to law enforcement people, they say people were drinking and getting stoned at the same time. not as cut and dry or black and white as that, but the caller makes a pretty good point. if you get really stoned, you will follow asleep and not beat anybody up. host: a tweet from dallas who wants to know -- on the legalx stuff, the recreational is about 36%. what do they say? they think the in theenue for the state first fiscal year or even in this year alone will be over $100 million. $136 million. crazy. superhigh tax.

that is the other part of the thing is, no one says i am sorry. it is not stopping anyone from buying this. just in virginia. go ahead. disclosure, ill was a big stoker for many years. i quit about 14 years ago when my son came along. we used to call it nature's prozac. there is another side to this. our founding fathers notoriously had marijuana. they grew it for different reasons. i am sure they smoked it a little bit, but there is another business part that can come out of this. fibers of marijuana, the actual plant are very strong. paper make clothes,

for books. there is a wide range of stuff you can use for this. it seems to me that this could stoners span out into saying let's start making t-shirts. they get a co-op going and making it this way. this could be a little bit more money than just the tax revenue that comes from it. guest: yes. it is growing by leaps and bounds. those of us of a certain age will remember if you grew up in several areas or spent time in was growing this wild in the 1960's, especially during world war ii, tons of hemp was grown all over the country. a marijuana plant without thc in it. it was used as the caller

suggests for fabrics, rope, superstrong rope. the hemp industry is making a comeback as we speak. host: what is a pot tour? guest: you pay a certain amount of money, and you have artie signed up for one i think -- just joking. can trying to see what we do on c-span, see if we can get a laugh. what you do is you go online and type in pot tour. all of these companies in colorado. pay a certain amount of money, put you in a beautiful hotel, a limousine with a tour guide. they will have different kinds of samples. you will go to a grower, shop, a place where they make the edibles, and you will get a full-blown introduction as it were to what it is like to be around legal marijuana.

we talked to a couple of people on a tour, and that they were very happy to be there. with nbc news,th the special for cnbc, marijuana in america, colorado pot russia re-airs tonight and friday as well. thank you for your time. appreciate it. coverage of the house coming in for the legislative session. we will be back tomorrow morning 7:00 eastern time. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., february 27, 2014. i hereby appoint the honorable bradley byrne to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 7, 2014, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leadfo